Addressing a luncheon organised by the Consulate General of India and theConfederation of Indian Industries (CII) at New York on May 17, 2005,Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said: "We are India's youngest,smartest state without any liability from the past. We intend to become thecountry's hottest investment destination." Heading a team of seniorofficials, Raman Singh was pitching for foreign investment for his state, whichsits on some of India's richest mineral reserves of coal, iron ore, dolomite,bauxite and limestone. Returning home after the trip, on May 27, Singh declaredthat foreign investors would invest close to INR 56 billion in the coming monthsin the state. The Chief Minister's boast may, however, seem somewhat incredible,considering the security environment prevalent in Chhattisgarh.
On May 7, 2005, Naxalites of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)attacked the Samri Aluminum unit of Asia's largest primary producer of aluminum,the Hindalco Industries Limited (a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group)at Saridih in the Surguja District, destroying the company's buildings anddocuments. Following the attack, the Balrampur Superintendent of Police, SitaramKaluri, stated that security forces involved in combing operations in the regionhad earlier stayed in the company's residential premises, which may haveprompted the attack. However, this was not the first attack on the Hindalcogroup by the Naxalites. On April 25, 2002, they had attacked Hindalco's KutkuBauxite mines in the Balrampur area, damaging machinery and equipment worth INR20 million.
The latest assault did not end immediately. On May 8, in an attack reminiscentof the Koraput incident of February 6, 2004, in Orissa, CPI-Maoist cadresattacked the Kanker District Headquarters, setting afire buildings belonging tothe revenue and forest departments, as well as a branch of the State Bank ofIndia. The offensive was meticulous and according to Kanker Superintendent ofPolice, Pradeep Gupta, "the attack was unexpected. The armed guerrillasblocked all the roads leading to the incident site by felling trees onroads." An interesting aspect in both the attacks - at the Hindalco unitand in Kanker - was the reported involvement of more than 200 cadres in amethodical operation, in both cases taking the security, corporate andbureaucratic machinery by surprise.
With 43.7 per cent of the state under forest cover, and a 31.75 per cent tribalpopulation, Chhattisgarh has provided fertile ground for the Naxalites tooperate in and dominate. According to a recent state government intelligencereport, the Naxalites have become a "dominant force in nine of the 16districts and have partial but fast growing impact in four districts".Among the worst affected districts include Kanker, Dantewada, Bastar, Surguja,Rajnandgaon, Koriya, Kawardha and Jashpur. The report has also predicted thatthe Naxalites could capture nearly 60 percent of the state's land by 2010, ifdecisive operations are not carried out by the Union government to dismantletheir bases.